The first woman to chair International Olympic Committee (IOC), Kirsty Coventry, honored Ana Patrícia and Duda, the beach volleyball champions, in celebration of the first anniversary of Paris-2024 games.
In a special ceremony in front of Paris City Hall, where during the European summer a public beach volleyball court is set up, the leader presented the Brazilian with a special collection with a special collection with Olympic theme.
“Athletes can talk better about memories, emotions and feelings, but it’s great to be back in Paris,” Sheet. “Beach volleyball was one of the iconic headquarters, with the Eiffel Tower [ao fundo]”Recalled the Zimbabuana Coventry, an Olympic former Nadadora.
She added that where she went to Paris, people stopped her to thank him for the success of the games.
Ana Patrícia and Duda are in Paris at the invitation of the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB). They did an e-exhibition training with young French beach volleyball players. The day before, they had visited the Eiffel Tower and the place of Olympic glory a year ago – now without the provisional stands set up for the games.
“Of course it gets very different, but you see some points that were very important,” said Ana Patrícia about the return to Paris. “There is always something that marks, right yesterday we said, ‘Wow, this was the place we did this and that’, so it’s really cool.”
Ana Patrícia tattooed the Eiffel Tower on her left arm, the Olympic rings and the date of the Gold Medal: August 9, 2024. Duda told the Sheet who still intends to make his commemorative tattoo.
Also attending the celebration of the anniversary of the Paris Games the German Thomas Bach, Coventry’s predecessor in front of the IOC; the president of the Paris Games Organizing Committee, Tony Estanguet; French Minister of Sports, Marie Barsacq, and her predecessor, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, current president of the French Olympic Committee; and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo.
In an interview with Folha last week, Tony Estanguet stated that the Olympic and Paralympic Games fulfill a role of “resisting against those who are isolating themselves, with perhaps somewhat scary visions,” in reference to the world’s political conjuncture, with conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, among others.
